On Tuesday, the German Federal Prosecutor's Office announced the arrest of two individuals from Afghanistan for allegedly conspiring to commit a terror attack near Sweden’s government complex in Stockholm. Officials have suggested their motive was in response to incidents of Quran burning in the Nordic country.
The suspects, whose names were not made public, were apprehended in the Thuringian city of Gera.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told reporters "the two detainees had already made concrete preparations for a bloody attack," and they planned "to kill police officers and other people with firearms in Stockholm in the area of the Swedish parliament."
Prosecutors allege that the Islamic State in Afghanistan commissioned the operation in 2023, and the detained migrants worked “in close coordination” with other ISIS sympathizers in Europe.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser released a statement after the arrests saying Berlin “remains very alert and acts firmly to prevent Islamist attacks.”
Sweden experienced several anti-Islam demonstrations last summer, some of which involved the desecration of the Quran. These protests drew widespread condemnation in Muslim-majority nations and prompted Swedish authorities to elevate the nation's terror threat level.
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